Every Single Quaker Mention In Film

Sometimes it seems like the world doesn’t know quite what to make of Quakers—and the movies are no exception. For decades, Friends were often the butt of jokes, “thee”-ing and “thou”-ing across the screen, our spiritual beliefs reduced to a rejection of violence the modern world finds unrealistic.

But that’s changing. In recent years, we’ve seen sympathetic cinematic portraits of real-life Friends such as Arthur Eddington and Bayard Rustin, as well as insightful speeches like Ethan Hawke’s description of a Quaker wedding in Before Sunrise. The jokes still linger, but the world is starting to understand Friends a little better now—and, occasionally, see in our faith and practices an ideal worth pursuing.